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Mrs. Anne Campbell: And pollution.
Sir Graham Bright: The cars are fitted with catalytic converters.
Some 80 per cent. of the new estate car production is exported. However, Vauxhall has received no help, whereas Nissan, Toyota and other car manufacturers have received help. That does not help to persuade companies
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Mr. Garrett:
Vauxhall had plenty of assistance to relocate on Merseyside not long ago.
Sir Graham Bright:
I am talking about keeping manufacturing jobs in the south-east. I represent Luton, not the north-east. I am proud to represent Luton and I will continue to represent it for many more years.
Luton is the economic dynamo for Bedfordshire and beyond. It is set to consolidate its current successes and to develop new opportunities for businesses and jobs, because it has all the main ingredients for future success. It has an excellent transport infrastructure. More and more passengers, especially business passengers, are choosing to use our airport. There is access to the M1 and the M25. There is an excellent rail service--and I am looking forward to its being privatised as I am sure that that will improve it even further.
Despite all that, there is much more to come. Luton airport is continuing to develop its services. It will be greatly assisted when the new Parkway station is built. It is to be the new interchange in Luton, financed by the private finance initiative. It will be a huge generator of employment in the area and it will be a magnet for businesses--not only airport-related businesses, but the corporate headquarters that are moving to towns such as Luton. That is good news and it illustrates the stage that Luton has reached and how we are financing our success.
It is not just the excellent transport system that is receiving huge amounts of investment. Prudential Insurance has invested millions of pounds in refurbishing the Arndale centre, which is the main shopping centre. I am pleased to say that it is in the centre of the town, not out of town. That refurbishment has increased the centre's attractiveness to shoppers and has led to new retail outlets setting up there. It is a real success story of private investment.
As I said, Vauxhall has invested its money in Luton, preferring to stay there rather than move to other European locations. The hon. Member for Norwich, South pointed out what was happening in the north of England; I am worried about what is on the other side of the channel. I want to ensure that Luton is an attractive environment. Britain is attracting almost half of all inward investment and I want to ensure that we keep it that way. Companies come to Britain not because they like it, but because it has the right economic environment. That is the only reason why they come here.
Much of our success has been achieved not by the interventionist approach favoured by Labour Members, but through the sort of private investment that is leading Luton into the next century. That private investment is there only because of the climate of enterprise that the Government have generated. Low tax, low inflation, low interest rates, sound public finances, reducing the burdens on business and ensuring high education standards and skill levels--those are the reasons why so many companies are investing in Luton. It is a microcosm of the rest of the country.
Ms Liz Lynne (Rochdale):
It is important that we discuss, among other things, social security uprating, but we must also talk about the many people who are not receiving the benefits to which they are entitled. Last week's Department of Social Security estimates of the take-up of income-related benefit, particularly those for pensioners, were extremely depressing. I make no apology for mentioning that, even though I mentioned it in Monday's debate. One million pensioners are not receiving the income-related benefits to which they are entitled and the take-up rate for pensioners is deteriorating.
We need a national advertising campaign to ensure that those pensioners realise what they are entitled to. We have an advertising campaign for the benefit fraud hotline and for the Child Support Agency in Greater Manchester. If we can have such campaigns for those things, why cannot we have an advertising campaign to let pensioners and other people know what they are entitled to? It is not good enough just to send out leaflets, although those are welcome. We need to ensure that pensioners will take up those income-related benefits.
On the details of the social security uprating, do the Government honestly believe that the existence of lone-parent benefits encourages marriages to break up, because that seems to be what the Secretary of State for Social Security is saying? Where is the evidence for that? Where is the evidence that it encourages people to leave their husbands and to set up as a lone-parent family?
Lone parents are rarely better off. The hon. Members for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) and for Peckham (Ms Harman), the Opposition spokeswoman, said that 40 per cent. of one-parent families have an income of less than £100. That compares with the fact that 4 per cent. of two-parent families have an income of less than £100.
In my intervention, I told the Secretary of State that the lone-parent premium was introduced in 1988 by this Government to recognise the extra costs of lone parents bringing up a child or children. I do not honestly believe that he answered the question why in 1988 there were extra costs, but why, this year or next year, there will be no extra costs for such parents. As the Secretary of State has admitted, the largest group of lone parents are divorced and separated women. They are not going to be encouraged to leave their husband just for these benefits.
The Secretary of State cannot honestly believe that a happy couple will split up, just so that the wife can receive the extra benefit of £5.20 a week or £6.30 a week. It is ludicrous, but that is what the Government are suggesting.
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Mr. Bernard Jenkin:
Will the hon. Lady explain and justify to a married couple on benefit why a single parent should effectively be better off than a married couple on benefit in identical circumstances?
Ms Lynne:
The hon. Gentleman should have put that question to the Secretary of State for Social Security in 1988, when the lone-parent premium was introduced. The Government recognised the extra cost then. There are extra costs for lone parents bringing up a child. Everyone knows that. It is an established fact, or the Government, in their wisdom, would not have introduced the premium in 1988.
The Government have already admitted that 90 per cent. of lone parents want to work. We should be helping lone parents back into work. To do that, we need much more help with child care costs. With respect, the £60 disregard is not enough. It is paid only on family credit. It will not help many of those lone parents, for the simple reason that they cannot find child care at £60 a week.
I am appalled that the Government are abolishing the one-parent benefit. They talk about getting lone parents back into work. The benefit helps such parents in work and it is not cost-effective to abolish it.
I am concerned again that the Government have not uprated the social fund maternity payment in line with inflation. I am pleased that they have uprated child benefit, but we need to know what will happen. At the previous general election, they guaranteed that child benefit would be uprated year on year in line with inflation. I hope that, in her reply, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury will give an assurance that that will occur year on year from now on, and that that will be a strong general election commitment. It is important, because the Labour party has decided to scrap child benefit for 17 and 18-year-olds in education.
I am sorry that nothing has been done in the social security uprating to restore benefit for 16 to 17-year-olds. Many of those people are not in jobs and are not receiving benefit. More than 120,000 was the last count--the precise figure is 120,300. Do the Government know what has happened to those young people? I will tell them what has happened to some of them. Some are out on the street. Some have gone into prostitution. Some have gone into crime.
When that happens, there is a knock-on effect for this and every Government. There is a knock-on effect for the Home Office budget, because the crime figures and prostitution rise. There is also a knock-on effect for the Department of Health because, once they are homeless, people's health suffers. It is not cost-effective to cut benefit for 16 to 17-year-olds, as the Government have done. They should restore those benefits.
Many of those young people leave home because they cannot cope at home. I know about the provision that, if a young person has been abused, he can report it and could receive benefit, but many of those young people do not want to say that they have been either sexually or physically abused. They are too embarrassed to do so. They leave home, they cannot get employment and cannot receive benefit.
We need to ensure that those people have proper training places. The Government say that they can easily gain a training place, but the figures show that that is not
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To get people back into work, we need a proper benefit transfer scheme to ensure that, if someone has been unemployed for more than a year, his benefit is given to an employer to take him on. The Government should consider that and I hope that they do so.
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